A snowboarder spent 15 hours trapped overnight inside a ski lift gondola amid freezing temperatures at a resort in California.
Monica Laso boarded the gondola around 5pm on Thursday at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe to ride down the mountain because she was too tired to snowboard.
Soon after boarding however, the gondola completely stopped – leaving her suspended in the air.
Laso yelled for help, but no one on the ground heard her and did not have her cellphone, so she couldn’t call for help either.
Speaking to KCRA, Laso told the outlet: ‘I screamed desperately until I lost my voice.’
Monica Laso boarded the gondola around 5pm on Thursday at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe to ride down the mountain because she was too tired to snowboard
In an effort to fight off the cold, Laso resorted to rubbing her hands and feet together as temperatures dropped to 23 degrees.
Laso had been at the resort with friends who reported her missing to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.
She added: ‘I didn’t have a phone, a light or anything. I felt very frustrated.’
It wasn’t until Friday morning when the gondola started up again for the day that staff realized she’d been there overnight.
The ski resort, located on the southeastern side of the lake near the California-Nevada border, is investigating ‘with the utmost seriousness’ how Laso got trapped.
‘The safety and wellbeing of our guests is our top priority at Heavenly Mountain Resort,’ said Tom Fortune, the resort’s vice president and chief operating officer, in a statement.
Kim George, a battalion chief and spokesperson for South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue, said that sheriff’s deputies requested their paramedics around 8:30 a.m. Friday after Laso was discovered.
She was responsive and alert and declined to be transported to the hospital, George said.
The ski resort, located on the southeastern side of the lake near the California-Nevada border, is investigating ‘with the utmost seriousness’ how Laso got trapped
Monica Laso boarded the gondola around 5pm on Thursday at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe, seen here
A skier kicks up some powder at Heavenly Ski Resort, in South Lake Tahoe, California (file photo)
In her 23 years with the fire department, ‘we´ve never responded to anything like that,’ George said. ‘I´m very curious to hear the story.’
In 2016, a jury ordered a Vermont ski resort to pay $750,000 in damages to a woman who was left stranded on a gondola lift for over five hours.
Nadine Price had been at Killington ski resort in October 2011 when the incident occurred.
She boarded a gondola which was to transport her to the summit of the mountain and was left trapped when the resort shut down the slopes due to inclement weather.
Initially, her lawyer asked the jury to award his client $500,000, but the members unanimously agreed that she was deserving of more.
Earlier this month, a dramatic 16 car pile-up was seen along the road outside the popular ski resort where Laso’s incident took place.
Drivers witnessed a terrifying series of car crashes on the icy roads on as eager skiers rushed to the mountain for its fresh snow.
The popular Heavenly Ski resort was recently the scene of a 16-car pile-up as eager skiers ventured to the snow
In an earlier incident, skiers visiting Heavenly Ski Resort had a close encounter with a black bear
Bystander video footage shows as tense spectators stand helplessly as one-by-one more and more cars slide uncontrollably down the mountain.
At the end of last year, skiers encountered a massive black bear as it stormed across a busy slope at Heavenly Ski Resort.
In the video a large bear can be seen emerging from the woods and pausing at one side of the slope. The animal then suddenly sprints across the trail towards the woods on the opposite side – leaving scores of startled skiers in his wake.
As skiers navigated the run, the large black bear emerged from the woods just two days before Christmas.
Fortunately, no one collided with the bear or was harmed during this unexpected encounter.